Project PERFECT

This project was funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (ERC-2013-Co-G) awarded to Professor Lisa Bortolotti in order to explore the Pragmatic and Epistemic Role of Factually Erroneous Cognitions and Thoughts (PERFECT). The project started in October 2014 and ended in September 2019. The project featured four post-doctoral fellows, two PhD students, and the participation of Dr Michael Larkin from Aston University.

PERFECT aimed to establish whether cognitions that are inaccurate in some important respect can ever be good from a pragmatic or an epistemic point of view. Can delusional beliefs, distorted memories, and confabulatory explanations, which are frequent in the non-clinical population and also listed as symptoms of psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and dementia, have redeeming features?

logo of British Philosophical Association Good Practice Scheme (looks like a gold medal)

British Philosophical Association Good Practice Scheme

Logo of European Research Council

European Research Council Consolidator Grant

Logo of the University of Birmingham

In the pictures above you can see: the original PERFECT team in October 2014, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Magdalena Antrobus, and Lisa Bortolotti; an image from the Birmingham Heroes poster with Michael Larkin, Lisa Bortolotti and Ema Sullivan-Bissett (2015); and the panel for a public engagement event on memory and bias, featuring Lisa Bortolotti (chair), Anneli Jefferson, Magdalena Antrobus, and Katherine Puddifoot (experts) (2016).